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​Jaida Elcock is a graduate student at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on elasmobranch ecology and conservation. She is particularly interested in the movement ecology of migratory elasmobranchs, as this information is still unknown for many species. Jaida received her B.S. in Biology with University Honors from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. She has been recognized as an American Elasmobranch Society Young Professional Recruitment Fund Scholar and an Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Jaida is a science communicator through social media and enjoys doing outreach with any age group.

Nichole Broderick is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on impacts of the microbiome on animal health. Nichole’s teaching portfolio includes Tiny Earth, a microbiology-based authentic research course in which students search the soil and other environments for antibiotic-producing microbes. Through her role as the Director of Science and Training for Tiny Earth, she has helped train over 200 college and high school instructors to implement this course.Broderick received her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has won several awards including a Human Frontiers Long-term Postdoctoral Fellow, the 2020 Faculty Mentor Award from the University of Connecticut McNair & LSAMP Scholars Programs, and the 2021 American Society for Microbiology Award for Education.

Michael Baym is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard University. His research is centered around the problem of antibiotic resistance, at the intersection of experimental, theoretical and computational techniques. His work ranges from understanding the basic mechanisms of evolution to the development of algorithms for computation on massive biological datasets. Baym received his PhD in Mathematics from MIT and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in Systems Biology. He has won several awards including a Packard Fellowship, a Pew Biomedical Scholarship, and a Sloan Research Fellowship. He is also a part-time inventor, holding over four dozen issued US patents.

I grew up in New Philadelphia, OH and have always been interested in animals. I participated in 4-H equine projects and milked cows at local dairy farms in high school, but did not decide I wanted to pursue veterinary medicine until I was in college at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. There I earned a BA in Molecular Biology and minor in Environmental Studies. I went to veterinary school at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and have worked for the 5 years since serving the dairy, beef, equine, sheep, goat, and camelid patients and clients of Western NY state with the Perry Veterinary Clinic.

Watch her session here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83167298401
Abby Lewis is an ecologist who studies the effects of human activities on freshwater lakes. Her research has taken her everywhere from Southern California to Iceland, where she has studied how Los Angeles night lighting changes water quality in unseen ways and how invisible nutrient pollution affects Icelandic flies. Now, at Virginia Tech, Abby is working to help reservoir managers provide safe drinking water while also maintaining healthy lake ecosystems. The key to both of these goals? Invisible gasses in the water at the bottom of the lake. 
Twitter: @lewis_lakes

Caitlin Cunningham is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at Dalhousie University. Her research looks at how cities can be better designed to support wildlife and meet biodiversity conservation goals. She is especially interested in how small spaces, like lawns and roadside verges can be used as wildlife habitat in the city. In her spare time, she is on a mission to find the best climbing tree in Halifax and the best recipe for peanut butter baked goods.